Wonder Women

Rick Young

Rick Young

International Women’s Day, a combined celebration of the extraordinary accomplishments of women worldwide and a calendar date that helps create and elevate awareness for the social, cultural and political injustices women continue to fight globally, is a time, for me personally, to honour my wife and two daughters, and to reflect on those who made and left a lasting impression — my late mother, mother-in-law and grandmothers.

Not that I require March 8 for that. I try to do it every day.

Professionally, what International Women’s Day does, at least this year, is affords me an ideal opportunity. For quite some time I’ve wanted to pay tribute to many dedicated female colleagues through media, business acquaintances and business leaders across the golf industry. It’s long overdue.

What pushed this post to my radar screen was a morning last month. It started innocently enough. Perusing social media I came across a tweet mentioning that longtime friend Lisa Vlooswyk, a.k.a. Lisa Longball, would be one of seven keynote speakers at the Toronto World Leadership Forum next month.

To know the eight time Canadian Long Drive champion and Callaway tour staff member is to know someone with a level of passion for golf and life that has no ceiling. Vlooswyk is boundless energy. Her grassroots support of the game through her career journey as a writer, speaker, golf school owner and long drive specialist have put Vloosywk into an elevated place, not merely as one of the most influential women in Canadian golf, but amid the most influential in the sport today.

On television in the background, Golf Channel’s Cara Banks and Paige Mackenzie were talking about Tiger Woods’s upcoming schedule. Earlier I was paying attention to a segment with Lauren Thompson. As all of this is happening an interview I had done with Maria Bonzagni, senior director of marketing for gloves and accessories at FootJoy, during the PGA Show was being transcribed.

Surrounded by women through golf. Coincidence? Unquestionably. Still it was a poignant reminder, as if I needed one, for just how ingrained women have become in the golf industry, how important they are to the game’s short and long term success and how much influence they truly have.

This tweet on PGA Reach via Golf Channel’s Bailey Mosier I saw on International Women’s Day is particularly well positioned relating to diversity, inclusion and the ideal of women playing a far more critical role than ever before in the game’s growth engine.

“Females have long fought the feeling of not belonging in golf. They now see that not only do they belong, but they deserve to be here and they can hold their own”.

Can they ever.

Consider some of the elevated positions women currently occupy in the golf space. Royal Bank of Canada’s (RBC) Mary DePaoli is a shining example. The bank’s executive vice-president & chief marketing officer is currently the most powerful influencer in Canadian golf — man or woman — as the financial institution’s quarterback of its golf portfolio and its investment in PGA Tour properties, the RBC Canadian Open, RBC Heritage, Team RBC and other RBC related golf initiatives.

Golf Canada’s 114th president in 2018 is Leslie Dunning. A Chartered Professional Accountant and Certified Management Accountant registered in Alberta, Dunning is a distinguished alumna of the University of Waterloo and the earner of an MBA from Queen’s University in Kingston. The long time Golf Canada volunteer and former president of Alberta Golf was elected in January during Golf Canada’s annual general meeting. Dunning takes over from immediate past president Roland Deveau. Liz Hoffman, another long time volunteer for the organization has assumed the role of 2nd vice-president this season.

Mary Lou Bohn has risen in the ranks at Acushnet to earn one of the company’s most senior positions. After a career with the Fairhaven, Mass., company that started in sales and administration back in 1987, she was promoted to vice-president, advertising in communications in 2000; parlayed that into a promotion to vice-president, golf ball marketing and Titleist communications in 2010; moved on to briefly become executive vice-president, Titleist golf ball balls and Titleist communications before accepting her current position in June 2016.

Today, Bohn is president of Titleist golf balls.

Former LPGA Tour player Jeehae Lee traded her tour bag for the classroom in 2012, enrolling at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, one of the top business schools in the United States. After graduation Lee joined Topgolf and has never looked back. She is now the director of business strategy for the Dallas, Texas-based golf and entertainment brand.

In governance terms no one has a higher position in golf right now than PGA of America teaching professional Suzy Whaley. The Cromwell, Conn., native is most famous for becoming the first woman since Babe Zaharias in 1945 to qualify for and play in a PGA Tour event, the 2003 Greater Hartford Open. But her hard work and dedication to craft have been recognized by merit. Whaley amid her many teaching and professional responsibilities is now vice-president at the PGA of America. She is the first woman ever elected to serve as an officer for 29,000 members that comprise the organization.

“I’m passionate about coaching women and girls, while sharing with them the game I love,” Whaley said on PGA Reach (Twitter). The PGA of America is dedicated to creating opportunities for all women – whether it’s playing and enjoying the game for consumers.”

Looking across Canada I see women, like Whaley, with that same level of commitment to teaching the game. Among them, Canadian Golf Hall of Fame member, Cathy Sherk, former LPGA Tour player A.J. Eathorne and my young friend Casey Ward, a graduate of bio-mechanics from Cal State Fullerton and Queens University in Kingston, Ont.

Dedication is no stranger to women entrenched in the golf media realm either. Beth Ann Nichols at Golfweek, Stina Sternberg at Golf Digest, Karen Crouse of the New York Times and noted bloggers Stephanie Wei (Wei Under Par), Patricia Hannigan (Golf Girl) and Heather Jones (Real Women Golf) are all great reads. More importantly, they are critical influencers of the game — for men and women — via the written word.

On the broadcast side there are even more of these women influencers infused into the game right now.

How about Amanda Balionis? A Callaway Golf brand ambassador, like Vlooswyk, the stylish broadcast journalism graduate of Hofstra University has built a stellar golf resume, moved up through the ranks and is now a regular on CBS Golf’s broadcasts as post-round interviewer. Balionis, in my opinion, has been one of the network’s best hires. She adds a great deal to the show.

Others behind the microphone requiring no introduction to the golfing masses include the legendary Judy Rankin, Maureen Madill, Kelly Tilghman, Chantel McCabe, Karen Stupples, Jessica Marksbury and SCOREGolf TV’s own Gina Phillips. Tilghman by the way owns the distinction of being the PGA Tour’s first female lead announcer. Few are better at their craft.

Promotion of the game comes via many channels. Another group of dedicated women have parlayed beauty, golf acumen and celebrity into a critical niche for the game and its followers. Cobra-PUMA Golf’s Blair O’Neal, co-host of Golf Channel’s School of Golf; PXG brand ambassador, Paige Spiranac and TaylorMade Golf and adidas Golf Christina Lecuyer, a Canadian, maintain vigorous personal appearance schedules helping to further expose the game’s virtues to the masses.

That segues me to Tiffany Chaisson. What a story. Now a resident of Prince Edward Island the Sydney, Australia native is the CEO of Fairways Fund, a non-profit organization that helps to service the needs of underprivileged junior golfers all over the world through financial sponsorship. Currently the organization sponsors 20 junior golfers in Canada, Bolivia, India and Nepal.

“I want every child to be able to pick up a golf club, go play this great game regardless of parents finances,” Chaisson told me when I first met her. “If they want to play I want to help them.”

Time is going to cut me short here but it will have to wait another moment until I mention a few more women I highly respect for their place in the game. Adidas Canada general manager, Lesley Hawkins; Titleist supervisor of player research, Karen Gray; Frankly Golf co-founder Valerie Melvin; Claire Welsh, who now works with the Royal & Ancient as player relations manager (after working in marketing and communications with Golf Ontario); USGA director of public relations Janeen Driscoll; others in public relations like Mary Beth Lacy, Cassie Phillips, Meg Godfrey, Elizabeth Epstein; and administrators and volunteers like Barb Allan, Liz Hoffman, Mallory Dayman.

Gracious, I could go on.

To those I didn’t mention (sorry) and those women I did I want to say thank you. The role women play in the game today is vital. It’s critical in making the golf industry, and by extension golf itself, stronger and more inclusive now and for the future.

International Women’s Day or not it seemed like the perfect time to get that message across.